Dear Friends,
I know, I know! "Moving the ball towards the goal line," does not sound real spiritual. And the question could be honestly asked: "What does 'moving the ball towards the goal line' have to do with reaching unreached people groups?" Hey...I am glad you asked!
This past weekend (this could be used in a Trivia game) we learned what Universities were going to play important football games in a variety of Bowl Championship Series games. (That is "BCS" for those of you not interested in U.S. Football!) Many people were happy...and many others were angry...angry because their team was not selected for the most prestigious BCS game, or at least a high level BCS competition. The fans will be upset, sports writers will write many column inches of pros and cons, sports talk radio will debate forever about who should have been invited and who should not have been invited and the BCS "stuff" will continue to move forward no matter how angry or happy anybody happens to be! What a national diversion!
And so "we move the ball towards the goal line!" In the STADIA INTERNATIONAL-JONATHAN PROJECT realm we use that expression of speech to help us understand that we are connecting unreached people groups (*UUPG's and/or UPG's)with church groups/small groups/families/individuals, through GLOBAL JONATHANS, who are prepared and ready to carry the Gospel into the hard places...or...who will actually be "moving the ball towards the goal line!" By making those "connections" the Gospel is being preached, Jesus is being exalted, lives are being transformed, and we are moving closer to the ultimate objective of Jesus Chrst- when all will have had the opportunity to have heard the Good News about HIM!
As I see it we are involved in the biggest, most eternal BCS of all! Ours is not just a temporary win at the end of a long football season. The BCS we are playing in is for keeps! We are not limited to a parade and a moment of fame on the TV (High Def...of course!) on the first weekend of the New Year. The parade we'll be in is eternal...it never ends! The band will play forever! The Marshall of the parade will always be the Marshall...the Grand Marshall...the Ultimate Marshall...none other than Jesus Christ. HE is the star. In the middle of the parade the TV announcer will not announce the NEXT BIG THING coming up on Channel so and so in such and such a city! There will be NO "next big thing!" The BIG THING will be taking place in front of our eternal eyes- we'll be there simply because we accepted the terms for getting to the parade as set out by the Grand Marshall...Jesus Christ! We want the WHOLE world to know that story, those terms, and have the opportunity to make that choice to choose to attend this Game of all Games- eternity in heaven with Jesus Christ.
And so we happily say, "we are moving the ball closer to the goal line" when another unreached people group (*UUPG and/or UPG) is adopted by a church, or a small group, or a family, or an individual! I invite you to consider being a part of this team. I visited with two churches this past week- one in Arizona and the other in Nevada. Both are jumping into the mission with us. Among the many wonderful things they both are doing they have determined, "we want to be involved in moving the ball closer to the goal line." They will be adopting either *UUPG's and/or UPG's and in partnership and in teamwork we will together, purposefully work at "moving the ball closer to the goal line!"
Please be in contact with me if you would want to know more about joining this growing team!
Merry Christmas,
Graydon and Judy Jessup
714.488.7922
graydonandjudy.blogspot.com
www.facebook.com/graydon.jessup
*UUPG "Unengaged, unreached people group." To the best understanding of those who study and track these situations, people living within a UUPG have NEVER heard the Name of Jesus Christ and they have NEVER heard any word from the Bible. We believe that there are over 500,000,000+ people currently on the globe who fall into the UUPG category.
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